


Mother Hen

by blackwyvern



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Injury Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 22:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3994846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackwyvern/pseuds/blackwyvern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place after Vengeance is mine.  Raph's never been good at admitting injuries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother Hen

“It's fine.” Raph huffed, sliding out of the Shellraiser's opening doors and away from Donnie's grasp.

“It is NOT fine.” Donnie snapped, voice taking on that laced edge of panic as he pursued his older brother. “Get back here and let me check it again.”

“I don't need you to check it again Donnie!” 

Snarling Raph slipped through the garage, his shorter frame causing him to practically run in order to outpace his longer legged sibling. Donatello would not be denied. When it came to medical injuries, and Raph in particular, the genius could be every bit as stubborn and immoveable as his older brother.

“Raph get back here!” Donnie said, voice raised into a shout as Raph, running now, made it through the living room and toward the safety of his bedroom. Speeding up Donatello made a grab for Raph only to have a door slammed in his face, the bolt hitting home with a loud snap. “Stop being ridiculous!” 

Giving the door a few good knocks before releasing a frustrated sigh, Donnie stormed back to his lab, passing Mikey, who had slumped in defeat on the pit couches. The genius gave his lab doors a good resounding slam, making Leo and Splinter cringe as they tended their own mental wounds.

Inside the safety of those reinforced steel doors, Donnie screamed in frustration kicking over a wayward box, metal screws rolling to the cement. Exasperated at his own outburst, their failure and Raph's stubborn refusal to seem anything less then untouchable, the genius slumped to the concrete.

This wasn't the first time he and Raph had been at odds over an injury and Donnie doubted it would be the last. It didn't, however, make the situation any less frustrating. Slowly Donatello began picking up the haphazardly strewn pieces scattered in his anger. Because that's what he did, he fixed things. He put things together. Whether it was healing an injury or building equipment.

But Raph...Raph would not be fixed. Refused to be fixed, or healed, mended or assisted in even the slightest way.

He supposed that it went almost as far back as he could remember. Back then they had barely been able to throw a straight punch, much less wield a weapon. But Raph....Raph had been determined to get as many steps ahead of everyone else as he possibly could and at that time the hot heads metaphorical road block had been Leo.

Or more the fact that Leo had already progressed from polished wooden bokken to blades. To a real weapon, not some wooded fabrication. 

The envy in those green eyes had been enough to practically burn a hole in the dojo rugs as Splinter had run their older brother through a familiar technique using his new weapon.

Donatello had already been prone to late night tinkering at that age, staying up into the wee hours in order to finish a project or problem, his mind racing with a million possibilities. So of course he had been the only one awake when the sound of someone falling through the turnstiles had rung out startling him out of his thoughts. The blue print he'd been working on sat on the table, a hastily scrawled s on it. The interruption had broken his thought, and like the wind it, the next word he'd been primed to write was lost to the swirl of his mind. Snarling in frustration at his lost train of thought, Donnie had leaned his head out of the lab door ready to lay into Mikey, certain that his youngest brother was either sleep walking again or rummaging for late night snacks. Instead he found Raph, sprawled across the pavement, blood seeping from his shoulder in rivulets.

Even then Donnie had a habit of acting on auto pilot in an emergency. Internally he'd been screaming, a million questions clammering in his head for attention, but first and foremost he'd checked the injury. Raph's shoulder was a line of crimson, the top of his plastron cracked in a thin line, his shell chipped. The offending culprit, a weighted chain, spiked ball glistening with blood at the end of it lay haphazardly tangled in the turnstiles.

Shouting for Splinter, Donnie undid a wrist wrap applying pressure as their father appeared swiftly from the dojo. The clamor had also woken their brothers. Mikey had stared, his face a mask of terror, while Leo, even then so good at hiding behind a calm mask, had comforted him.

The wound had turned out to be shallow, lucky for Raph, but had required Donnie to patch and epoxy the plastron crack, and stitches for the flesh. As an extra precaution Donnie had also wound bandages around Raph's shoulder and chest and fearing that the crack might get worse, Raph had been barred from training. He was to do no more then light exercises until such time as the injury was deemed out of danger.

Raph had chaffed under that, muttering when he thought no one was listening about getting further and further behind. 

Donnie had tried to help keep him busy as best he could, but although Raph had a very mechanical mind, he didn't possess a very scientific one. He was a great help when it came to patching or working on the various machines around the lab, but he easily grew agitated when Donatello slipped into his more theory related pursuits. 

A week had passed, time slowly ticking by in measured hours and Raph had seemed ready to explode. And then, just as suddenly as Raph had seemed on the verge of an all encompassing rage, he calmed.

There had been an edge of fear to his movements then and several times Donnie had caught him touching light fingers to the bandages but whenever the genius questioned him, Raph had evaded. Brushed him off with biting remarks and harsh glares.

Rolling a screw between his fingers Donnie wished he'd been more tenacious in his pursuit of Raph's odd mood back then. If he had, he often wondered, would he have been able to prevent what happened next? No, he sighed to himself, he supposed not. In fact the damage had probably already been done. Had probably already been unfixable by that point.

He remembered the day the bandages were to come off. How Raph had sat there like a doomed man facing execution. Cold sweats breaking out on his forehead as Donnie had removed the bandage. The stitches had been fine, the gash in Raph's flesh sealed well enough that they could be removed, but Raph's plastron...

The patch hadn't been the neat and tidy bit of work Donnie had done. In fact it lacked any sort of delicacy. His mind had raced back to weeks earlier, when he'd woken to find his lab in disarray. Naturally he had assumed some work of Mikey's at the time and had quickly taken stock of his supplies. Nothing had appeared missing.

“What did you do?” Donnie had questioned, accusation coursing through his tone. His voice low and hissing to avoid alerting anyone outside the lab.

Raph hadn't answered him, had averted his eyes, shame painting his features.

“Raph,” Donnie had hissed sharply, “What. Did. You. Do?”

Eyes sliding shut with a condemned sigh, the hot head had easily, too easily, removed the patch. There, on his plastron, where the crack had once traced a thin zig zag, Raph now had a gaping, lighting bolt shaped chip. 

It hadn't taken much prodding at that point for Donnie to get the full story out of him. Frustrated with his lack of progress and his enforced downtime, the hot head had begun to work out alone in his room. Quietly and late at night so as not to disturb anyone. Unfortunately it hadn't taken more then an exhausting two sessions for the fracture to flare painfully.

Worried that he'd somehow caused the patch to fall loose Raph had snuck into the lab after Donnie had turned in for the morning. When he removed the patch a piece of his plastron had come with it, stuck to the patch itself.

Too ashamed and prideful to admit he'd royally screwed up, Raph had repatched it as best he could, but the missing piece wouldn't come off the old material and so he'd regretfully gotten rid of it. 

That had been several years ago now and while Donnie would have thought the experience would make Raph more prone to asking for help with his injuries the shame his brother had felt had the opposite effect. Raph had shut down. So badly that a few times Donnie had practically been forced to hog tie the hot head to a lab cot in order to treat him medically. 

And now Raph, after taking a faceful of unknown venom, had holed himself up in his room. 

Gathering the last of the errant screws, Donatello lifted himself off the lab floor. His best course of action was to wait. Raph, despite his beliefs, needed to be checked out more thoroughly and in better light then a nearby burning building could offer. 

Dinner was a largely find your own affair owing to the defeated mood that hung about the lair like a black fog. Raph did not appear. But the genius was patient, if food wasn't going to bring Raphael out, something else would, he only had to wait.

Despite his frequent irritability Donnie was patient. He had to be. Projects couldn't always provide an instantaneous result, and thus the genius excelled at waiting. The hours ticked by slowly, supplies at the ready, Donnie settled into his ambush spot and let them roll over him. His mind continued to dwell over ideas great and small, and occasionally he'd spare a mote of attention to jot down a thought on his note pad.

Eventually, late into the night, he finally heard the sound he'd been waiting for. The bolt on Raph's door slowly sliding back, and the barest rasp of hinges as the hot head cracked his door. Donatello held his breath, eyes fixed on that imposing darkness beyond, waiting. 

Raphael slid out from the door slowly, rubbing at his eyes and squinting every which way. Satisfied that no one was around, the emerald turtle had slipped out of his room and quietly made his way down the hall. Donatello waited until his brother opened the bathroom door and slipped inside before he moved. Abandoning his hiding spot the genius ran into the bathroom just behind Raph, slamming the door shut, the bolt sliding home.

“Donnie!” Raph snarled, eyes red and irritated as he squinted in the harsh bathroom light, “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I don't know Raph,” He snapped back, pushing Raph onto a stool, “Saving your eyesight!” 

Huffing in irritation, Raph reluctantly submitted to Donnie's prodding. It helped that neither their brother's or father were here, that it was just them. Removing Raph's bandanna the genius drew a sharp intake of breath at the blistered flesh around his eyes.

“The venom must've soaked your bandanna pretty good. It had no where to go so it just stayed pressed against your skin.” Donnie babbled, removing the medical wash from his kit and setting to work.

Raph hissed with each wipe at his skin or drop forced into his eyes but Donnie would not be dissuaded this time and continued his examination, shining a light into Raph's pupils. “Doesn't look like there's any permanent damage to your eyes, they're just irritated from rubbing. Stop that!” Donnie snarled, slapping Raph's hand that had come up to take another swipe at his eyes as the genius had moved away.

“I'm going to put some ointment on the skin next. It should sooth the irritation, and I have some eye wash I want you to use several times a day. Oh and I want to check this over again in a few days.”

“Okay mom.” Raph growled, heat rising in his cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is Fulcrumist's fault! They did this wonderful sketch http://fulcrumisthebomb.deviantart.com/art/TMNT-big-baby-534715674 and we were talking about how Raph likes pretending he's not hurt when he is. The subject of Raph's cracked plastron came up and I'd always wanted to write a piece going in to how he got it but could never really come up with the right way to do so. Well inspiration struck after the conversation so here we are. :) Thanks for reading and thanks to Fulcrumist for hitting me with a plot bunny.


End file.
